More (Mostly) Bad News for/from Google

In June of 2006, while working to resolve some indexing issues for a client, I discovered a bug in Google’s algorithm that allowed 3rd parties to literally hack a web page out of Google’s index and search results. I notified a contact at Google soon after, once I managed to confirm that what we thought we were seeing was really happening.

The problem still exists today, so I am making this public in the hope that it will spur some action.

Well, this is interesting. It’s not unusual for a trademark owner to sue Google for keyword-triggered ads–been there, done that. However, the fact that American Airlines pulled the trigger catches my attention. Many trademark owners who have sued Google had relatively obscure brands. Rescuecom? JTH Tax? Check-n-Go? Even American Blinds is hardly a household name. In contrast, American Airlines is an extremely well-known trademark owner with a big portfolio of trademarks. Further, American Airlines apparently decided it was worth going to war over this issue–and is prepared to pay the big bucks to litigate this case accordingly. If this lawsuit runs its course, I expect this to be a hard-fought and expensive lawsuit.

SF Chronicle’s Stages Of Google Grief Lead To Suggestion For Google To Just Buy Newspapers First off, before someone brings it up in the comments, I’ll point out that the following post refers to the views of various columnists at the SF Chronicle, rather than any sort of discussion among those who have any real impact on the SF Chronicle’s strategy. However, it is quite amusing to see the “stages of Google grief” showing up on the editorial pages of the struggling San Francisco newspaper who has had to rid itself of hundreds of reporters lately.

Google Increases Stake in China Seeking to become the top search company in China, Google is planning to buy more Chinese companies and increase its investment in a few others.

Microsoft’s anti-Google lobbyists, revealed If it wasn’t official before, we have it in writing now: Microsoft is directing at least a small fraction of its massive (by tech industry standards) lobbying shop toward Google’s proposed purchase of DoubleClick.